Combat project

[MichiganBrian]

Well, call me sick but I just picked up another Hodaka. Early production combat wombat. Aftermarket tank and fenders. Bassani silencer.
My father rode one back in day, I chased him with my dirt squirt when I was a kid.
I want to restore it back to stock. I need tank, fenders and handle bars. If anyone has these and would part with them. Let me know please.

[MichiganBrian]

Pulled motor today. Sent it off to Hodaka Dave.
Anybody out there with combat parts laying around???

[MichiganBrian]

Had some time this weekend for tear down.
By the lack of response, are combats hard to get parts for??
Tank, fenders, bars, chain guard, kickstand.

Question...can the cushions in rear hub wear out?? I have some slop when I grab sprocket and rock it back and forth
Brian

[viclioce]

Yes the cushions in the rear hub can dry up and shrink and also become hard. Tanks are getting harder. The CW uses the same tank as a Model 96 Dirt Squirt. Also the chain guard from a regular Wombat should also work fine. Basically the same frame but the CW doesn’t have some of the electrical mount parts found on the lighted Wombats. Victor

[MichiganBrian]

Thanks for your response. I’ll keep my eye out for wombat parts too. I may end up going with plastic fenders and tank if they’re scares.
Bike came with a wombat tank, but it has holes in the saddle area. Has anyone had luck brazing holes in a tank?
Brian

[matt glascock]

A whole bunch of pinholes, commonly seen along the tunnel, if fixable. I've done several myself. Caswell 2-part epoxy tank sealer is excellent. Follow all the instructions for prep, glassing the tunnel, etc. with extreme (as in waaaay) precision and you can save that tank. Now if the tank is rusted through or otherwise trashed, DS tanks come up fairly regularly on ebay and such. Depending on how you plan to use the bike, the higher capacity Wombat tank might be desirable.

[MichiganBrian]

Off to sandblaster Wednesday. It’s getting painted with a single stage urethane paint.
I’m finding more and more parts needed.
I’ll take a good look at the wombat tank I got and see if it’s worth trying to fix.

[viclioce]

Take the tank to someone good with braising experience. I actually welded the bottom of a Super Rat tank. But, it had so many dents I didn’t use it. And I did this with a 10 year old Chicago Electric welder with only a hi/lo power setting. Not a good welder compared to the one I have now. I could have ground it down more, but I decided to stop working on it since it had 3 big dents and a lot of deep scratches.

Braising would have been better. But I didn’t have anything but a propane torch which wouldn’t heat the metal hot enough to braise it well. Victor

[socalhodaka]

I have a new set of UFO silver fenders that would look real good on the CW, if you don’t find the steel fenders. Here is a set on my SC so you can see the fit and look. I will seek for $110 plus shipping.

[MichiganBrian]

Thank you for offer socal. What ufo part #/model are them fenders? They do look good. I was thinking silver or white.

[MichiganBrian]

Merry Christmas to me!!!

[Dale]

Merry Christmas indeed!

[MichiganBrian]

Getting close to being finished. Need to work out a few things.

1. Fouling plugs regularly. Running B9HS plugs. 32:1 fuel mixture. Stock jetting. I’m considering going to hotter plug. Yes or no??

2. Forks clunk hard at full extension. I added extra oz. of fork oil. So now at 6oz. Of 15WT. Still clunks. Stock Combat forks have a short spring on cylinder (dampener). Mine do not. Looks like someone removed spring and added as a preload spring on top of regular spring. Maybe trying to get more travel?? I was thinking of tearing apart a putting short spring where schematic shows.
Question…why do other models not have short spring on cylinder??

[Bullfrog]

B8HS plug will be fine . . . BUT be SURE your jetting is OK . . . AND that your engine doesn't have any air leaks. A pressure test would be highly recommended. "9" was factory heat range selection - but even Harry Taylor thought "9" was too cold.

Back in the day, another inch of travel was often considered more important than some "measely" topping out clank issue. () 20 wt is the minimum I ever ran in CW forks. Feel free to try 30 or even 40 wt.
Ed

[MichiganBrian]

I picked up some “8”plugs. I’ll try them. I’m going to put some heavier oil in the forks before I make any other internal changes.
Thanks

[dirty_rat]

On the forks, there was an article in the original "Resonator" that described how to improve the fork action on those forks (and the forks on the other Hodaka's that used the same forks). It involved blocking the small oil hole in the bottom of the upper fork tube (just below the snap ring) and drilling three new holes in the tube a little higher up (1/4", 1/2" and 3/4" above the snap ring). The top out spring was then removed from the damper rods. I have done this modification on a few of my bikes and have never had a problem with the clunking at top out.